Thirteen Again
by Elfdragon12
Summary: Death is never the end. One person finds this out when they have a fatal accident. Watch our heroine as she attempts to keep up with her new life.
1. Prologue

Thirteen Again

Prologue

Nineteen and still a fan of 'cartoons'. More like anime, but people still consider it 'cartoons', which is a very general title. Well, the anime I'm most a fan of would be the ninja show, 'Naruto'. There's so much character growth and so many different characters that it's unbelievable. I love it. I even came up with my own little team. Well, at least most of one. I had the teacher, and two of the students. No matter how hard I tried, I could never come up with a proper image for the third team member. I came up with the member's past, and it was a fairly nice one, especially when compared to one of the other two.

Anyway, as you can see, I'm a fairly dedicated fan, even sticking through what seems to be a never-ending line of filler episodes in the anime. I pick a bad time to be thoughtful about this subject, for I happened to be in the driver's seat in my little Honda.

It was nighttime on a mountain road. I had gone this way many times, for my collage of choice lied on the other side of these mountains. Despite the fact I had been very familiar with this road, it didn't help me against stupid drunks who either didn't know this road, or were too drunk to figure out how to drive.

Either way, I still ended up getting hit. Head to head. That drunk probably wouldn't survive, just like I wasn't going to. It was not very hard to figure out I wasn't going to live. I had been going about seventy miles per hour and I don't even know how fast he was going. Even if the collision didn't kill me, blood loss would. But before everything faded away like the blood from my forehead and various other places, I heard a voice call to me. It was a voice I didn't like at all.

"Finally croaked, huh?" That voice laughed. It was a horrible, wheezing laugh. "About time too. I was just about to give up and kill you myself."

"Who's there?" I called out weakly. This voice was frightening me. It was hard to believe there was someone out there with such an evil voice.

The voice laughed again. "I am the five-tailed wolf, one of nine. I'm sure you are familiar with a couple of my," the voice paused, looking for the right word, "associates. Specifically the fox and that tanuki. I must thank you, child." The voice continued, "For you are the one who created my host. Such a pleasant host he is. Though he still has far too much will to properly set me free. You should remember him. Soulless, dark eyes, dark hair with incredibly long bangs." The voice left it off with that.

I knew who he was talking about. The boy he was talking about was one of the two boys from the ninja team I created, the one named 'Urufugawa Sho'. But it didn't seem right. I never wrote that Sho was one of the carriers for those tailed beasts. "How? I never said he carried anyone. He was troubled enough without you!"

"Would you rather I inhabit you?" The voice questioned. I didn't want that horrible voice in my head and he knew it. "Come now. You mustn't keep your teammates waiting." I felt a tug in my mind and, though I didn't resist, it felt like it was defiling me with its touch. "You know, your name hardly suits a girl from this certain era." The voice spoke again. "We shall call you Tsubame."

At this point, I hardly cared. I could see my body now. It looked a lot worse than how it felt. I vaguely wondered what would happen once my parents found out that I had died. What would they do? They wouldn't have to pay college fees anymore. My thoughts became disconnected and made no sense to me anymore. The worst was that I hardly cared. This feeling I had of my spirit being dragged away from my near-dead body was liberating. That voice that had frightened me so before seemed to hardly matter.

"This is where I leave you now." The voice told me. "I think you will get along fine from here. I can't wait to see how you change things. You and our team shall continue at the beginning of the Chunin exams in which the 'Rookie Nine' of Konoha shall be entering. Along with certain visitors from Suna." The voice chuckled. If the voice had a body, I could image it was licking its lips in anticipation. I began to feel heavy again as I heard the voice one more time. "_Sayonara, doujo_." (Goodbye, little girl)

* * *

"Does anyone else feel that their team is ready for the exams?" An old voice asked loudly, waiting for a response. Four people had already stood forward, three men and a woman, one of the said men glaring comically at the other. 

"I do." A fourth man stepped up to join them, making five total. His light blonde hair was straight, messy, and came over his hitai-ate in several places. His green jacket was unzipped as his hands separated the fronts even further by keeping his hands in his pants pockets. He had a calm aura about him and a placid smile was stuck on his face. A long slanted scar marred his face, stretching from the middle of his forehead down the right side of his face down to his chin. His green eyes stared steadily at the man officiating. "I recommend Naito Tsubame, Urufugawa Sho, and Toshiha Higuma to take the Chunin exams."

Whispers from the crowd behind him could be heard.

"Ito Kiyoshi?" The elderly voice from before questioned as its owner scanned over the information of the man's team. Two young boys and a girl. The elderly man sighed before replacing the information on his desk. "Alright."

* * *

A.N.

Ah, yes. Another fiction by me, even though I haven't finished any of the others. This time, it's Naruto. I thought I'd try this kind of plot for once. It's not a self-insert, so I'm good. I love my Kiyoshi-sensei. It was so hard drawing him because I could never draw a version of him I liked. First he had a very neat style, well-groomed and the stuff, but then when I drew him in a more Kishimoto-style, I came up with the final version I like... Only he looked a bit like Kakashi, he's even got a scar. Oh well. It's not he's the same as Kakashi. Anyway, please tell me what you think of this. Like it, hate it(if so, why did you read it?), or that you think I should stop wasting my time with this and update my other stuff... The whole last scene turned out a little awkward, I think.

Oh yeah. I don't own Naruto. My name is not Masashi Kishimoto. If it was, there'd be a whole lot more Kankuro-loving.


	2. Chapter 1

Ugh! I feel so stupid! This story has been up for months! Months! And I only just figured out that I skipped the ACTUAL chapter one. The story and my characters should make a lot more sense after this. I am so sorry for anybody that this confused!

* * *

Chapter 1 My Teammates

"Oi! Tsubame-chan. Wake up!" I felt a gentle shake of my shoulders. I opened my eyes to look at who was shaking me. It was a young boy with light brown hair that was messy, like he hadn't bothered to brush it that morning. His violet eyes looked at me with concern.

"Higuma-kun?" Odd, my voice sounded different in my ears. Younger and higher pitched.

"About time. I almost thought you were never going to wake up." The boy fell back onto his rear end. I was able to get a good look at his shirt. The shirt was gray with a black collar and shoulders, there were no sleeves, showing his already muscular arms. On his right upper arm was tied a hitai-ate. His voice was incredibly boyish and kind of cute. "I guess you must be tired. Usually you're not hard to wake up. What do you think Sho?" Higuma looked up to another young boy, about the same age.

I looked up at Sho, who was almost exactly how I always pictured him. Long, dark bangs, similar to Haku's but longer, and short in the back. His dark eyes looked so empty my heart immediately went out to him, though I kept my mouth shut. From what I had for him, he was not one for pity, verbal affection, or physical affection. His clothes consisted of a long, loose, light green gi, a black sash around the waist, and black shorts. The bottom of the gi reached only an inch or two above the hem of his shorts. Sho's hitai-ate was tied in the proper place against his forehead.

"Perhaps." Sho said vaguely. His voice was reminiscent of Sasuke's, which didn't surprise me too much. I had always imagined Sho as a sort of mix between Sasuke and Haku, though the back of Sho's head didn't look like a rooster. Sho looked at me, calculating. Suddenly his stomach growled and a light blush dusted his cheeks at Higuma's loud laugh. I surprised myself in joining in with light fit of giggles.

"I guess it's time for lunch." I offered slowly. At the mention of lunch, Higuma pops up and offers his hand to help me up, which I accepted. He lifts me without much effort, though I nearly fell forward from the sudden pull.

"Let's go to town and get some ramen, my treat." Higuma offered. "No pigging out though. That's on your own money." He quickly amended his offer. I accepted, not knowing how much money I had on me, and Sho shrugged, but joined in our little twosome.

Walking next to Higuma, I suddenly became aware of how short I was. There was no way Higuma was taller than Lee, most probably about the same height. Here, I only came up to his eyes, being eye-level with his chin, I decided to look down at myself to see fully the changes. It was then I realized how different I had become. I hadn't been this flat since I was thirteen. My skin, however, was still a dark tan. As for my clothes, I wore a dark gray and black stripped sweater that extended past my wrists and the collar was that of a turtleneck, a pair of small black shorts covered my bottom and over the rest of my legs was fishnet and dark blue sandals that I recognized as a trademark from this 'anime'. There was mini-satchel on each arm that held, what I assumed to be, shuriken. I was quick to notice the wakizashi tied to my back, right above my butt. My dark brown hair was short again, styled with two pigtail braids that barely rested on my shoulders and my evenly cut bangs that came over my hitai-ate that I wore in the traditional fashion. I was now the ninja-ized version of my thirteen year old self. That stupid beast was going to make me go through half my life all over again!

"Here we are!" Higuma loudly announced. Already there were two faces I recognized. Two boys I knew to be Chouji and Shikamaru. Chouji was a boy who was overweight, big-boned if you asked him, and wore his hitai-ate… oddly. I always liked him, with someone who has a story like he does, how could I not? Shikamaru had also been a character I favored. His black hair was tied in that familiar ponytail and that dull look on his face. Higuma interrupted my thoughts, "A pork ramen my way, please!" A cheeky grin was plastered on his face. I didn't remember him being so characteristically like Naruto! "What about you, Tsubame-chan?"

"Uh," I stared at the large menu for a few seconds before deciding just to copy Higuma. "Pork please." I stared over at Sho, wondering what he would order. I had never thought about what he liked to eat.

"Miso." Sho paused, "Please."

With Sho's orders, the three of us sat down, I the closest to Shikamaru and Chouji. At various times and volumes, we said 'itadakimasu' and dug in to our ramen dishes.

"So Tsubame-chan," Higuma started up a conversation to break the silence. "Did you realize that the next Chuunin exams were coming up?"

I swallowed my mouthful and looked over at the brunette. "Oh yeah. I remember now. I had nearly forgotten." And it was true, with all the sudden changes going on about me, I had totally forgotten what the voice had told me.

As I had been talking and thinking, Higuma had taken the opportunity to shovel down the rest of his ramen. He placed his money down on the higher counter and stood up. "Good, because I don't want you to forget. The team that stays together, wins together." He winked and waved before walking off. "See ya, I'm going to train some more."

"He's really confident." I heard Chouji comment.

"Yeah. That's how he is." I agreed. I looked over at the two boys. Shikamaru hadn't bothered to look while Chouji had turned to look at me. "It's better when he's pumped for something."

"You're Tsubame, right?"

"Yes. Naito Tsubame. Is there something you're wanting to know?"

Chouji shook his head. "I wanted to see if I had your name right." He quickly returned to his food. As I myself returned to eating my food, I was puzzled. That was an odd thing to say.

As I slurped down the rest of my ramen, I pondered on the question if those three siblings from Suna arrived yet. I stood and looked over to say goodbye to Sho only to find out he wasn't there. I didn't know why I was surprised. That would be what Sho would do, disappear without saying a word. The kid didn't talk much.

"Still, he could have at **least** said goodbye. It's not that hard." I grumbled under my breath. Before leaving myself, I looked over at Chouji and Shikamaru. Despite the fact **I** knew who they were, did not mean **Tsubame**, who I was now, knew who they were. "Um, you figured out my name, but I don't know yours. Mind letting me know?"

Chouji turned around, giving me a surprised look. "Oh! I'm Akimichi Chouji and this is Nara Shikamaru." Shikamaru gave a brief wave of acknowledgment.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." I gave a sincere smile. "I would like to talk more, but I have some things I need to check up on." Like whether or not the Suna siblings had arrived. I waved goodbye and walked off. I was confident I would see them again. After all, we only come from the same village.

Meandering through the streets gave me a lot of time to think. What was my life like here? Would I be able to continue here as a ninja? I tried to think of any jutsu's I knew only to be bogged down with many I not only knew, but could somehow remember doing. Well, that cleared up that, even if it confused me more. As I began to figure out, things would start to get a whole lot more confusing.

"Hey! Put him down, you jerk!" Starting with that shout that I just heard.


	3. Chapter 2

Okay, right where this SHOULD be. Again, I am so incredibly sorry about the confusion. Now, if only I had some sort of time machine, I could go back and fix this... Any one of you out there got a time machine?

* * *

Chapter 2 New Rivals

As it turned out, I was late for the show. Konohamaru, a little brunette boy, had already bumped into one of the Suna siblings, Kankuro. Kankuro's elder sister, Temari, the blonde girl, stood next to him, neither stopping nor helping him. The scene was very reminiscent of the episode I saw this little incident, number twenty I believe. I decided not to interfere, opting for a spectator seat around the corner, behind two of the Suna siblings.

"Hm. I hate short people." I heard the one holding Konohamaru speak. It was Kankuro, a black clad ninja who I knew to be a couple years older than Naruto, the blond I could see too well. Why wear orange if you're a ninja? I thought the point of a ninja was to be stealthy. Anyway, I turned my attention back to Kankuro and Konohamaru. "It makes me want to break them."

Naruto yelled out in rage. As Naruto charged towards him, Kankuro dropped his hand and made strange movements with his fingers. Another cry from Naruto dragged my attention towards him. He had slipped. It was then that the movements Kankuro made actually made sense. I remembered it from the episode and only now did it actually make sense. I had to hold down the urge to smack my forehead. I mentally berated myself for a few good seconds before turning again towards the scene.

I watched as Kankuro reared back his fist, only to drop Konohamaru as a rock hit his arm. How strange, I was able to see the rock as if it had been slowed down. More changes in my body and reactions. I followed everyone's line of vision to behold Sasuke. It was difficult to see him, considering I was quite a distance away and Sasuke was in a tree. Two high pitched squeals caused me to wince. Sasuke's 'cool-ness' had caused the little girl, Moegi if I remembered correctly, and Sakura to squeal. It was easy to recognize Sakura's pink hair, though seeing it in real-life was disconcerting.

As it turned out, Sasuke's dark hair **did** flip up in the back like a rooster's. The sight caused me to snicker. I had never really been a fan of Sasuke. Well, maybe once upon a time, but that was before I watched the Chuunin exams arc. I was tempted to come and smack Sakura's large forehead for squealing over such a cheesy display of strength. As I speculated on this subject, the conversation carried on until a new person arrived.

"Kankuro." I heard a calm voice say that wasn't Sasuke. "Stop it." The air seemed to freeze as the entire group's attention, including mine, was drawn towards another figure. This one was hanging upside down.

"G-Gaara," Kankuro stuttered, "They started it-"

Gaara interrupted Kankuro to reprimand him, calling him a 'disgrace to our village', in his exact words.

"I-I was completely at fault." Kankuro adjusted his words to satisfy his brother. Sometimes it was really hard to believe Gaara was the youngest of the three. Kankuro continued stuttering out his apologies to Gaara. I surveyed the situation. The air seemed to still when Gaara gave Kankuro a look that silenced him. For my view point, I wasn't able to see the look on Kankuro's face, considering Gaara had appeared on the side opposite of me.

Gaara apologized to Sasuke for his brother. Sand quickly gathered around him and somehow transported him right next to Kankuro. I wanted to learn how to do that. Then Sakura demanded to see if they were allowed to be here in Konoha and what their purpose was. Temari flipped up what I assumed to be her identification and explained they were there for the upcoming Chuunin exams.

"Let's go." Gaara's voice was loud and clear as he turned towards my direction. I silently cursed. I didn't really have anywhere to escape to and I was too curious to see their reaction towards me. While I was debating what to do, the Suna siblings where still making their way in my direction. "Stop hiding, I already know you're there." The 'cat' was out of the bag then.

I sighed noisily. "Well, they did always say curiosity killed the cat." I turned from my little corner was around to see Gaara staring at me. "I'm sorry for spying and eavesdropping, I suppose." I began, "I just happened to hear a bunch of noise and got curious." Under my breath I added, "It's not like you three were very subtle anyway."

Gaara didn't respond, just continued walking. Before turning though, he just gave me a look of dismissal.

"Oh! Ah, also. You, Kankuro, was it?" I called out to the first of the brothers I had seen.

"What is it, nosy brat?" Kankuro turned to look at me with a cross look on his face. Only Temari of the remaining two turned to find out what was going on.

"Well, now that you've brought it up, I'm hardly a brat. I would bet money that if you're older than me, it's not by much." I protested, just a little bit irritated. "Anyway, what I was going to ask was if you did something to trip the blond kid. Right before he fell back, you did something with your hand."

"And if I did?" His voice betrayed his suspicion.

"Well, I'm not going try and get revenge or anything, I don't even really know Blondie over there. I just wanted to know if my hunch was right." That and I felt like talking to him. I was supposed to get out of that cursed stage during high school, but since some stupid wolf decided to take seven years off my life and send me to one of my favorite shows and to live in it, I feel kind of justified at my actions, though slightly disgusted.

Kankuro stared at me for a moment, I would guess trying to figure out if I was lying or not. "Yeah, I did. Now if that's all, I gotta go." I nodded.

"Tsubame." I whirled around to see Sho standing behind me, on the wooden fence. "Sensei wants to see us in our usual training field in an hour." One thing I had always liked about Sho's design. He was short and to the point, without beating around the bush.

"Uh, when'd you get there?" He also nearly gave me a heart-attack.

"Just a minute ago, while you were speaking to the one in black." Sho paused for a moment. "Sorry for surprising you."

As it turned out, Gaara had not realized Sho's presence until he spoke. Thus, Sho gained Gaara's interest. As we were speaking, Gaara approached us.

"Who are you?" Gaara demanded quietly. His eyes were intently on Sho, which made me feel a little left out. Gaara just sees me and keeps walking, but when Sho pops up, Gaara wants to know his name. Maybe Gaara was able to sense the five-tailed wolf? Then again, Gaara had always ignored Naruto even though Naruto held the nine-tailed fox inside of him.

"Tell me yours and you shall know." Sho queried back. Something that struck me interesting about this conversation was how it was almost like Neji Hyuuga's and Sasuke's first conversation.

"Gaara of the Sand. And now yours?" Something I just noticed then was how Gaara was actually more patient with those he considered to be 'equals' than with other people. Either that or Gaara didn't want to get into an argument over who introduces the other first.

"Urufugawa Sho."

Gaara seemed to be satisfied with his answer as he turned and for the third time, walked away. The air stirred as he left, like it knew that Gaara was a dangerous person. Slowly I breathed out, turned to look at Sho, and found Sho was no longer there.

"Sheesh, doesn't anyone remember how to say good-bye anymore?"


	4. Chapter 3

Yay! Everything's righter than rain! I could dance!

* * *

Chapter 3 Family Love

Two hours later I found myself walking home. Or at the moment, wherever my feet were taking me. For the moment I assumed it to be home. In my hand was the teacher's recommendation for me to enter the Chuunin exams. My full name was 'Naito Tsubame'. Several moments ago, the full effects of what had happened this day washed over me, making my feet drag in their duty of escorting me.

Sho had assigned himself as my bodyguard until I returned home. Whether or not he was doing it because he was worried or he wished to be a gentleman, I hadn't the slightest clue. Watching him from behind caused what had happened just a short while ago to return to my head.

"_This," Ito Kiyoshi, the Jounin I had created over the team I was now part of, held up three pieces of paper with writing on them, "is the recommendation for the three of you to take part of this next Chuunin exams." He handed us each our papers. "It will start seven days from now, so you have some time to practice and prepare. You'll want to do your best, so I suggest you prepare a lot."_

"_Yes! About time we get to take this test!" Higuma shouted, thrusting a well-muscled arm into the air. "Do you have any idea how many people there will be?"_

"_Nope." Kiyoshi said flatly with a shrug. "Since we're on that subject, I want you guys to be wary of participants from other villages. Don't pick a fight, but don't be a wuss if they start pushing you around. It'd be best to avoid them for now."_

"_Uh, actually, Kiyoshi-sensei, I've already come across three from Suna." I revealed. "One of them was very interested in Sho. Right, Sho?" I received a nod from Sho._

_Kiyoshi looked from me to Sho, then back to me. "How did you handle the situation?"_

"_Well, there wasn't a fight. I just asked one of them if something he did caused this blond kid to trip. As it turned out, my hunch was right. Sho popped up to tell me that you wanted to meet us in an hour. Then one of his teammates asked Sho his name, and Sho got his in return." I explained. Just for a moment, I decided to test Gaara's name myself. "Gaara of the Sand."_

_Over to my side, I heard a grunt from Sho. I turned to look at him to see a dark look cross his face. I was at a loss for guesses as to what he was thinking._

_Looking back at my sensei, I could tell Kiyoshi was surprised at Sho's behavior as well, but did little to voice his surprise. "Well, as you might have guessed, there will be a lot of interesting people there. For example, this year, there will be a total of nine rookies from Konoha. Gai's team too."_

"_That's good." Higuma announced. "I can't wait to fight with Rock Lee again." He continued, flexing one of his arms. "It's been too long."_

"_That's good for you, Higuma." Kiyoshi sounded uninterested at this point. "I got to catch a date, so you three are free to do whatever until tomorrow. I'll see you all at eight." And with that he vanished in a cloud of smoke. There was still no 'goodbye'._

_For a few good minutes we stood there, staring at the papers in our hands until someone decided to break the ice._

"_I'm going to go home. We'll be doing a bunch of training from here on out, so I'll take a break before we begin. After all, it's bad for the body to work too much." Higuma ruffled his brown hair with a grin. "Maybe I'll get to smack that prick Hyuuga during the exams." I assumed Higuma meant Neji, not the girl I remembered to be the sweet and incredibly shy Hinata. Briefly I wondered what it'd be like if Higuma had a crush on her._

"_Maybe." Sho responded. He turned to me, brushing some of his long bangs away from his face. "Tsubame, are you returning to your own home?" I nodded, wondering what he was getting at. "Would you mind if I escorted you?" This had taken me back with more surprise, so I nodded again._

So here I was now, following Sho to what would be my new home, not that he knew that. We had been walking for sometime by ourselves. Sho wasn't a good conversationalist. Whatever he said was to the point and he didn't bother saying anything else.

"Whatever it is bothering you," Sho's voice startled me out of my reverie, "sort it out before the exams."

"Wha-what do you mean, Sho?"

"Something has been different with you." Sho turned to look at me. His dark eyes dug into mine, effectively stopping me. "You need to deal with it before the exams or you will get injured."

What Sho told me, I guess I hadn't been surprise, for instead of coming up with some sort of retort, I just looked at my feet. I remember watching the Chuunin exams and knew it would be hard. I could still Sho's eyes on me expectantly.

"Don't worry, Sho. Whatever is bugging me is going to be gone by the exams." I flashed him a 'thumbs up', almost a rip-off of the 'nice guy' pose, but I wasn't planning to check if I had my own set of 'shoujo special effects' like Gai and Lee did. "Make sure you're ready too."

Sho didn't visibly react to what I said, but to me it felt like his gaze got softer. "I'll see you tomorrow." Then he was gone. That was better than earlier that afternoon when he disappeared without a word.

Ahead of me, I saw what I assumed to be my home, considering it had the name 'Naito' plastered to the side of the door. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door and walked in, only to see a flying foot heading straight to my face.

On impulse, I grabbed the foot, effectively stopping it from reaching my face. Then I had to support the weight of whomever the foot belonged to. I quickly changed how I was gripping the foot, from holding the bottom of it to around the ankle as the small body swung down. However, before I was able to let out a sigh of relief, the other foot swung up in a second attempt to hit me. Quickly my other hand came up to grab that foot around the ankle.

"Okay, Tsubame-nee-san. You win again. You can put me down now." The voice of my attacker sighed grumpily. The arms of my attacker hung limply.

"As long as you don't attack my head again." I reprimanded him as I set him down. As he stood up again, I got to get a good look at him, seeing as how I didn't have time to get a look when his feet came flying at me.

'He' was a little boy, around the age of seven or eight, with deep blue hair that was spiked back with several strands falling into his face. He looked up at me with bright blue eyes and a face that was screwed up in a pout. To cover his body, he wore a deep green shirt that had a white feather wing embroidered on each sleeve and black shorts. Also his left leg was taped up, whether the cause was injury-related or just trying to look cool, I wasn't too sure.

"Why can't I surprise you, nee-san?" The boy asked, continuing his pout.

"Because I'm graduated and you're not." I retorted.

Suddenly, a hand placed itself on my shoulder. Startled, I looked over to see who the hand belonged to. The owner was a young man, quite taller than me, dressed in the standard ANBU outfit. He had taken off his ANBU mask to reveal his attractive face, though there was a thin, pale scar, marring his left cheekbone. His skin tone was decently tanned, and his older, green eyes smiled down at me. His hair was the same color and tone of the little boy sitting in front of me, but his was longer and tied back, though several strands stuck out in his face in the same fashion as the boy's. If this guy wasn't who I thought he was, I would have a crush on him.

"Yashiro-chan, Tsubame-chan, you shouldn't block the door like this. You'll leave your nii-san out in the cold." His voice was calm and smiling.

Quickly, Yashiro, the little boy before me, popped up and pulled me out of the way. It was fairly easy to tell that he hero-worshipped his elder brother, or nii-san.

"Man, I'm so tired." The young man yawned as he entered the house. "How was your day of training, Tsubame?"

"Well, it went pretty well, though we called it quits about lunchtime." I thought about what else to tell him. "Oh yeah, Kiyoshi-sensei recommended us for the upcoming Chuunin exam." I added, showing him the paper on which the recommendation was written.

My brother stared at the paper in surprise then he looked at something over my head. He quietly chuckled. "It looks like you're about to get your own personal trainer for whenever you're not training with your team." Seeing the clueless look on my face, he added, "Don't look now, but Mom just overheard that you're going to be in the exams."

"How wonderful, honey." I heard an older, feminine voice from behind me. I turned to see a woman, approximately in her forties, coming towards me. Her hair, which was the same color as mine, was tied up into a high ponytail and her hitai-ate was tied loosely around her neck. She was pretty, in a motherly type way. She had a curvy figure, probably kept in shape through her missions, and guessing from the way my new older brother said I was going to have a personal trainer, she probably practiced jutsu's many times and kept them in practice. She placed a gentle but strong hand on my shoulder. "That means we get to spend more time together training!" She gave me a dangerous smile. "Let's talk about it over dinner."

"Dinner's ready?" The young man asked enthusiastically.

"Yes, Tori, dinner is ready. Now hurry up and get some before it gets cold."

"Yes, mother. Come on, Yashiro."

"Tsubame, make sure that Haneken stays were he is supposed to. That bird is going to rile up the older birds."

"O-oh. Okay, 'kaasan." What was she talking about?!

* * *

Elf: Ah, the next chapter has been posted. Woot-ness. Alright. Now I'll stop feeling so guilty about this story for a while. What will happen to Tsubame next? Will she be able to adjust to her new life as a ninja in her favorite anime?! Find out in the next chapter of 'Thirteen Again!' (And I really shouldn't type will listening to Thriller...) 


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Fun Times

The next several days before the Chuunin exams had been some of the worst days of my life, as strange as it had now become. At dawn, I was to eat a quick breakfast then go train with my mother until it was time to meet with my team. Then my team did **not** stop training until late afternoon, eating only a packed lunch, before returning home to eat some dinner then go back to training with my mother. Every time I walked in the door, I faced an attack from my little brother. Each time I went to bed, I immediately went to sleep, sometimes before even changing out of my dirty clothes.

In a different perspective, they were probably the best days for the beginning of my ninja life. I found out that Haneken was a young gray falcon that I was to be raising, kind of like Kiba and Akamaru. However, my mom told me that Haneken wasn't ready for missions and combat yet. I guessed that the Naito was similar to the Inuzuka clan in that aspect. I was able to figure out the jutsu's I knew, along with learning a couple new ones, courtesy of my mother. My non-basic jutsu's seemed to revolve around creatures of the avian type, otherwise known as birds. Also, I was able to discover the extent of my taijutsu. I was fairly decent, though my skills did not stand out by themselves. If only armed with taijutsu and I fought Rock Lee, I would lose miserably. Only coupled with my ninjutsu and my intellect did they seem to be good. That was alright though. I prefer being an average fighter with brains than a muscleman with no brains.

During these training sessions, I was also able to discover more about my companions. It was one thing to think about what they could do, but it was another thing to see their abilities put into action. Higuma was a very skilled taijutsu-user that I could see facing Lee and have a fifty-fifty chance at beating him. Most of his muscle lied within his arms and he didn't resort to kicks very often.

Sho, on the other hand, was fairly skilled in taijutsu and ninjutsu, but most of his skills lay in genjutsu. I had never actually put much thought into Sho's abilities for it was much more difficult, but obviously someone had done the work for me. For a mere genin, Sho was frightfully good at genjutsu, creating very real looking illusions.

Kiyoshi-sensei was very reserved in what he told us outside of what we needed to improve on or how we could use something to our advantage. In those days, I could never remember an expression on his face other than his placid smile.

The day before the exams began was the most memorable. Two days before I had finally mastered a jutsu that my mother claimed would be very useful both in the exams and later on in missions, though she explained to me that what I had mastered was only the first step of the technique. This particular day, my mother had me practice it over and over again, just to make sure I really had mastered it. Before I left to go meet with my team, she stopped me for a moment.

"Tsubame, this skill you've learned, at the level you're at, do **not** use it when you're by yourself."

"Mom?"

"It leaves your body very vulnerable to enemy attack. Your mind is elsewhere and your body is motionless. You are unable to go back and forth between you and the target, so you have to do your best to memorize everything when you see it." She explained. "But you're good at memorizing things, so remember to use that ability." Then, my mother kissed my forehead. "Go do your best, Tsubame-chan."

Training with my team started with nothing unusual. It wasn't until after we had just about finished our lunches that our routine was interrupted. Instead of continuing with our usual teamwork and physical training, Kiyoshi-sensei began drilling and asking us questions. These questions often required quick thinking and decision making. Over half of the questions were ones I answered, though Sho and Higuma answered some. If we got the question wrong, Kiyoshi-sensei assigned whoever answered fifty push-ups. While the person did their push-ups, Kiyoshi-sensei explained what in their reasoning was wrong and what one should have done. Every once in a while he threw in a question that put us in a lose-lose situation. He never gave punishments considering there wasn't a 'wrong' or 'right' answer. He merely gave the consequences of the choice and explained what could have happened had we chosen the alternative.

One of his questions was specifically geared towards me.

"You three are on a dangerous information-gathering mission. The information you have been sent to gather would greatly increase Konoha's abilities and knowledge of other Villages. Tsubame is the only one with all the information that you have been sent after. You are on your way to return from your mission when you are ambushed by enemy ninja who hope to stop you from taking the information back to your village. Tsubame has, for the most part, avoided fighting while Higuma and Sho have taken the larger parts of the enemies. After a lot of fighting, Higuma and Sho have been captured. Considering Tsubame is the one the ninja SHOULD be after and she is still free, she has two options. Either continue to fight against the enemy ninja to rescue her comrades or continue on to Konoha to deliver the information. Which should she choose?"

There was a second of silence before it was Higuma who spoke. "Tsubame-chan needs to get that information to Konoha. Sho and I both know that we were only along on the mission to protect her and there is a possibility of us dying. If she were to stay and fight more, there would be a very high probability of her getting captured." I turned to stare at Higuma. Honestly I had expected that kind of argument from Sho, not him. Higuma continued, "If she were to get captured, the entire mission failed and the enemies would know what kind of information we were sent to get. Sho and I didn't know what kind of information was gathered, so the information is safe."

"Well, Tsubame-chan?" I looked up to see Kiyoshi-sensei smiling at me. "How does that sound? You'd be the critical point in that situation, what would you do? I'll give you a little time on this one, since Higuma-kun already gave us one answer."

A stretch of silence filled the field as I thought on my answer. To be honest, I wanted to give the answer Kiyoshi-sensei was wanting, but I had no clue, so I gave what I thought would be good and what I might actually do. "Well, Kiyoshi-sensei, I'd have to take hold of the situation, depending on how many opponents are left, how strong they are, and how much energy I have at the moment." I gave a short, shy glance at my comrades before continuing on. "If I feel almost one hundred percent certain I can beat my enemies, I will take them on. But-but if I am not sure at all, I think, Kiyoshi-sensei, I'd have to leave them behind."

As soon as I had finished talking, Kiyoshi-sensei began to speak. "That was a very likely situation. Especially with B-rank, A-rank, or S-rank missions. Tsubame-chan will most likely have to deal with a situation very similar to what I've described. If the people you are accompanied by are captured to make sure you are able to escape, it is important to take into account your own strength before you decide to save them. If the situation is favorable to you, it is up to you to decide if you shall save them." The smile on Kiyoshi-sensei's face faltered for a second. "If you are in a situation where you lack the strength, do not waste your teammates' sacrifice."

No one was able to say anything after that, though I had the nagging urge to ask what had happened. Something must have changed in the history I had created for Kiyoshi-sensei. The way it originally was, nothing life-scarring had really occurred to him. There was something else there I didn't know. Fortunately for Kiyoshi-sensei, and perhaps us, I had the tact not to ask about it.

"Okay," Kiyoshi-sensei broke our heavy silence, "I think you three have had enough torture for one week. Today I'll let you go early. Think of it as a gift. I've got somewhere I need to be. See ya." And with that he was gone.

"You've sorted out your problem." Sho's statement came so suddenly after Kiyoshi-sensei's disappearance that I nearly jumped.

"Ah, yes." I confirmed with a hand over my heart. "Yes, I did."

"Good." Sho slowly turned to look at the sky. "I will stay here. I have already eaten enough to fill me."

"That measly lunch was enough to fill you?" Higuma asked in disbelief, "You've got a smaller stomach than mine. I'm still starving. I'm craving Ichiraku ramen myself." He turned to look at me. "What about you, Tsubame-chan?"

I looked up at the mention of my name. "Huh? Oh, uh, I think I could put some more down before I'm really satisfied." I quickly looked away from him. The example Kiyoshi-sensei gave only a short while ago was still playing itself in my mind. The answer I gave repeated itself in my head. I wondered if Higuma was really okay with dying like that. He seemed to be the type of person that would not give up very easily and would be hurt from abandonment.

"Alright, let's go." I felt a hand on my head, pushing me into walking. I obeyed its silent command.

Higuma and I walked on in silence and I was unable to look at him. Somehow, my answer to that problem seemed cowardly in a way.

"That thing Kiyoshi-sensei told us is still bothering you, right?" I had twisted to look at Higuma. He wasn't directly looking at me.

I paused before answering him. "Yes, yes it is. It's just that you two would be doing all the fighting while I get to run away to safety. Every time I hear my answer, it seems cowardly."

"It's not cowardly, Tsubame-chan. I know that, as a ninja, there is always a probability of getting injured, killed, or captured. Especially on that kind of mission Kiyoshi-sensei gave us. We were only there to make sure that you got back and forth with the information safely. If you did try to fight in that situation and got captured, sure, I'd be touched that you came to try and rescue us, but I'd be angry that you didn't get away to get that information to the Hokage." This serious tone was not one I had ever really remembered Higuma having much. A serious one. "You getting captured would mean the failure of **our** mission. Think how cowardly it'd look if only Sho and I got back without you. People will probably think we just gave you to the enemy. That's the only thing orphans do. Cause trouble and betray people."

"Hi-Higuma." His answer shocked me. He was turning out so different. Maybe I had caught on one of those rare streaks when he feels completely serious. Kind of like PMS in his own way. "That's not how it is. You wouldn't betray Konoha."

"Hey look, there's Ichiraku now." Higuma interrupted me. "Sorry, our conversation hasn't had the greatest turn. I don't know about you but it's hard for me to keep being depressed like this. It reminds me of the Hyuuga prick. He's always so gloomy with his stupid fate speech that it's annoying. Let's eat!"

I smiled in resignation at my friend. It figured.

Sitting at the bar of Ichiraku, was its most dedicated customer, Uzumaki Naruto. I almost had second thoughts about eating here with the loud Naruto, but I already knew this place had to have the most delicious ramen here and I was so close that there was no turning back.

"Pork ramen, please." Higuma asked loudly as he sat down. "What do you want, Tsubame-chan?"

"Um, miso pork, please." It was odd hearing how soft my tone was compared to Higuma's. Usually I was fairly loud.

We soon received our respective serving and gave our thanks. As I ate, I felt a pair of eyes on me. It's a really weird feeling, especially when the person is being completely obvious. However, just as I turn to face the perpetrator, he begins shouting at me. 'He' meaning Naruto.

"Now I know where I remember you from!" Naruto exclaimed pointing a finger at me. "You're that girl that was spying on me while I was facing that Suna jerk!"

"Watch where your pointing your finger." I was more than a little ticked off that he said I was spying on him. "You were staring at me almost the entire time I was eating. Not only that, who said I was spying on you?! **Someone's** got to have the brains to check out the competition!" After I said that, I quickly shut up. Who knew how Naruto would react once he found out that 'spying girl' would be in the Chuunin exams along with him? I could hear Higuma laughing to himself.

"Wait a second." Naruto said slowly. "What did you mean by that '**someone's** got to check the competition'?

I turned back to my ramen in a huff. "If you can't figure it out, why should I tell you?"

"Is spying on boy's activities a new hobby or an old one? Should Sho and Kiyoshi-sensei know about this too?" Higuma asked with a wide grin. He didn't receive a response to his question as I had turned beet red and was currently stuffing my mouth with ramen.

After effectively slamming down money for my food and the ramen bowl, I stood and excused myself angrily. As I walked away, I could hear Higuma accuse Naruto of getting me mad at him, and Naruto try to defend himself. However, I refused to get myself involved and sped up my pace.

On my way, I lost a lot of my steam and ended up drifting around the village. I watched people go about their way, rush their kids, other kids run around while playing and etc. Soon, the amount of people lessened as I reached one of the farther ends of Konoha. Still staring at the sky and not where I was going, I ended up tripping over a large object.

I couldn't even begin to tell you of my surprise when I found out what, or who, I tripped on. I tripped on a green clad boy with a dark bowl cut and super thick eyebrows. As I looked at him in disbelieve, his eyes opened slowly and he looked at me. His own eyes shot open even wider as he scrambled to his feet.

"Ah! I'm sorry, Tsubame-san! I should not have been lying in the road like that." The boy apologized as he took my hand and pulled me up off the ground. "Are you hurt at all?"

"No, I'm fine. You shouldn't take all the blame though, Lee. I should have been looking where I was going. My head was completely in the clouds." Rock Lee wasn't all to blame, though he was right. "Um, what were you doing in the street?"

"I had been circling around Konoha on my hands and I had fallen down." Lee explained. "I think I fell asleep."

"You shouldn't do that, because then someone might not pay attention and step on you." I informed him. "Anyway, it was nice seeing, er bumping… Tripping over you. Maybe not the tripping part, but whatever. I've got to get home now. Bye." I waved at him as I continued on my path.

It didn't take me long after that to get home. I was grateful my mom let me off that night, but what she said didn't really comfort me too much. 'Get to sleep, you'll need all the hours you can get.' Sure, I knew what was to come, but that didn't help, especially since I would be in it.

That night I had a dream. You know, one of those meaningful ones. This dream had some clues in it for me. It was about the day I became team members with Sho and Higuma.

I was sitting in a room full of other students, all about my age. Everyone wore a shiny, new hitai-ate somewhere on their body, I wore mine on my forehead myself. There was a floating sense of pride in me, sitting there. I had done so well.

The feeling died as another girl approached me. She was a fast maturing, pretty girl. On her pretty little face was a smug, 'I'm-better-than-thou', grin. "Well, I'm surprised you made it here, Naito. You always inferior to me." Her voice carried that annoying quality that her grin had.

"If that was the case, Takehoshi-san, it's a wonder I didn't fail, considering your skills." I leaned back, watching her face contort into a scowl. She was such a stuck-up. My thoughts came to a halt as I noticed a boy with thick eyebrows "Ah! Lee-san!" I jumped up and waved to catch his attention. "Over here!"

The other girl, Takehoshi, gave me a disgusted, snooty look and said "Drop-outs with drop-outs" before leaving me.

"Good riddance." I muttered quietly under my breath as Lee walked up to me.

"What was that, Tsubame-san?" Lee asked, having overheard me. That boy had a good pair of ears.

"Oh! Noting that was intended for you." I hastily said. I didn't want to get Lee upset. Something else that made me push what I said away was that I didn't want Lee to know to know that the girl that just went away didn't like me or him, we both were unpopular enough. "Why don't you sit with me while we wait for sensei to announce our cell assignments?"

"Thank you, Tsubame-san, but why are you not sitting with the other girls?" The question made me wince. There was something the dream-me was hiding.

"Um, well, they're talking about silly stuff, so I sat over here instead." I waved it off. They had been talking about stuff I certainly didn't want to talk about. "So, who do you think your team will be?" I switched the subject quickly.

Lee was silent for a moment, thinking with his hand on his chin. "I do not know. I never thought about it. Who do you think you will be teamed up with?"

I looked around the classroom. It was not hard to spot the class best, Hyuuga Neji. He was pretty good-looking, but he was colder than ice and he refused to look at anyone in the room, so he was off my list. I looked around for a minute before coming back to Rock Lee. I shrugged, "People that are agreeable will be good enough for me."

It wasn't too much longer before our sensei finally arrived and started announcing teams. My heart raced as he said each name, listening for my own. Soon Rock Lee was thrown in with Neji and a girl named Tenten, who I didn't really know very well. The dream-me felt sorry for Lee, but when I turned to comfort him, I saw a fire in his eyes and said nothing.

My name was spoken, drawing my attention to the sensei. My team was going to be announced! I leaned forward, listening for the names of my partners.

"Urufugawa Sho and" the sensei paused dramatically, "Toshiha Higuma! And for the next team's-"

I stopped listening after that. It took me a second, but I remembered who those two were. Sho was a really quiet guy, so no one knew much about him. He was the favorite next to Neji and from what I had heard, he didn't have any family. Then there was Higuma. There were rumors that he wrestled with bears. He was loud, but a rather nice guy, though he tends to throw his weight around. I heard his parents were killed in a mission and he lives with another family. Then there was me. According to test scores, I was among the highest. But I had a decent sized family, I was also one of the least liked in the class.

The sensei finished calling out names and I was about to call out to my new teammates when-

"Sneak attack!" A loud shriek jerked me from my sleep and I tumbled out of my bed like a rock. I looked up to see Yoshiro grinning at me like he had just been named to Hokage.

"Yoshiro," I mumbled, glaring at him through my messy hair, "if you don't leave now, I'm going to give you the worst noogie of your life."

As hoped, Yoshiro ripped out of my room, screaming like he was being chased by a horde of bees. My mom had been walking by when Yoshiro tore past her. She stared after him before letting me know that I had to get ready for the chuunin Exam. I got up and dressed as fast as my brother had left.

I came down with a long yawn when my dad handed me a bento box. The other day, I found out that my dad liked to cook breakfast. He liked to cook whenever he wasn't on his jounin-level missions. "Your teammates are waiting for you." He explained. "Eat it on the way and share. Good luck, honey." He kissed me on my head and pushed me out the door.

"Ready, Tsubame-chan?" Higuma grinned.

"Ready as ever. Let's go!"

* * *

Huh. This chapter is twice as long as the other ones... Interesting. Well, I hope the people who were watching me before won't give up now... And would people who watch this please leave at least a little 'I like you story'? Seriously. I like reviews. They feed my motivation, which is barely a little stronger than Shikamaru's. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this. Ja! -poof- 


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Begin the Exam

On the way to the examination building, we ate and talked happily about what the exam might involve. Well, truthfully, Higuma was the one who came up with most of the talking, I just laughed and added random stuff and Sho just listened. I already knew what was to come. It was something else, being so young again. I felt more... Free, I guess you could say. I could tell I was falling into habits I thought I grew out of. As I walked, I brought my arms closer to my body and looking away from the people I was talking to. I guess that demon rewinding my body rewound other things too.

The walk didn't take us too long and so enough, we were inside. We climbed the stairs until we heard a small commotion. Being curious thirteen year-olds, we poked our heads out to what the trouble was.

The three of us came just in time to see Rock Lee block the kick between Sasuke and the disguised Jounin. Higuma was the first to walk into the crowd.

"Nice save, Lee." Higuma complimented Lee cheerily. He jogged up to greet the green spandex boy. He almost pushed Sasuke Uchiha over in his enthusiasm.

"Thank you, Higuma-san. But I-"

"Weren't you the one who didn't want to bring attention to ourselves?" I heard Neji speak as he broke through the crowd. As Neji approached, I noticed a change in Higuma's personality. Normally, I would describe Higuma as an excitable cub, but it soon changed to a scowling grizzly bear. Lee didn't seem to notice the change as he turned to Neji and revealed his sudden attraction to Sakura. For the briefest moment, Neji made eye contact with Higuma and smirked. I even saw his fist clench and unclench before he about-faced and came back through the crowd.

As Higuma passed by me, he grabbed my wrist and dragged me away from the crowd. Sho followed after us.

"Ouch! Higuma! You're hurting me!" My complaint got Higuma to drop his death grip on my arm. "Do you really hate him that much?"

"Yes." Higuma nodded without looking back and he shoved his hands into his pockets. He walked off to the stairs so we could get to the examination room like nothing had happened.

I glanced over to Sho, rubbing the injured limb. My partner merely shrugged.

"They're too different in their ideas." He said, offering some insight to the situation. It made sense, but Higuma didn't have to hurt me like that then act like it was nothing. Maybe he had a guilt complex I could manipulate later.

One by one, the three of us entered the exam room filled with people. Almost everyone turned back to glare at us and, while most turned back to whatever their activity, I notice that some still watched us suspiciously.

"Yeesh, it's a tough crowd in here." I muttered just before the door opened again, this time with Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura entering.

"Ah! It's you again!" Naruto shouted, pointing a finger at me.

"Will you stop that already?" I asked him, flustered, "For the last time, I was not spying on you or your friends. I just happened to be passing by when all that stuff happened." I paused, "And stopped to watch for a second, but hey, it's not every day one sees Suna ninjas in Konohagakure." I placed my hands on my hips and looked away slightly at the end of my speech.

Naruto was quiet for a moment as he stared at me. He folded his arms and narrowed his eyes at me. "Who are you anyway?"

This nearly caused me to fall over in exasperation, but instead I simply sighed. "My name is Naito Tsubame." I paused, "What's yours, blondie?" From what I remembered, no one really asked for his name.

Naruto's face split into a wide grin and he jerked his thumb at his chest. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm not gonna lose to anybody here. I'm going to be the next Hokage!" He shouted this for everyone to hear.

A laugh behind us caught our attention. Another team, led by one Inuzuka Kiba, approached our little gathering. Kiba smirked at Naruto. "The loudest barkers are always the first to go." Kiba warned him, causing Naruto to scowl at Kiba's smirk. The white-furred dog perched on his head barked in agreement.

"N-na-Naruto-k-kun." A soft voice came from Kiba's side. It was a dark haired, pale eyed girl. Attention swiftly switched to her and, as she noticed this, her face began to glow bright red.

Suddenly, I heard Higuma gasp. I glanced over at him to see what the matter was. To my amazement, Higuma had a pink blush of his own. I followed his line of sight to see that he was staring at the girl! I almost laughed. Here, Higuma had just been fuming at Hyuuga Neji, and now he was blushing about Neji's cousin, Hyuuga Hinata!

While I had been speculating about Higuma, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino joined the group. Ino had hugged Sasuke from behind and Shikamaru and Chouji were speaking with Naruto. I decided to act then. I interrupted them.

"Hey Chouji! It's been a while." I stepped next to him. "Training hard?"

"Ah. Naito-san. You're here."

"Yes, I am. But please, not Naito-san. Just Tsubame. People call my big brother Naito. Both Sho and Higuma call me Tsubame." I paused, listening to a fierce argument that had broken out in the group. I looked away from Chouji to see Ino and Sakura shouting at each other. It was amazing how insane they could be.

Chouji saw me staring and shrugged. "They fight a lot. About each time they see each other."

"Women are so troublesome." I heard Shikamaru's bored voice spout off one of his key phrases. I smile and shook my head.

"Maybe, but I don't think you can quite call them women yet."

Out of the tense group that we had completely forgotten about, a young, gray haired, bespectacled man approached our lively group.

"Excuse me," The guy came up to us with a knowing smile. He wore a Konoha hitai-ate. "You might want to tone it down a bit." He advised. "A lot of people are very tense and you might get bullied. Look around you." We all did look in the crowd. I saw more than a few threatening motions toward our general vicinity.

This guy continued on to introduce himself as Yakushi Kabuto and to explain other things. He pulled out and orange deck of cards. Seeing some expressions of curiosity, Kabuto explained that these was information cards. I, for one, already knew this information and opted to look around the room

People stopped glaring at us at this point, since we seemed to have been calmed down. At least at the first glance. I noticed one particular team with music notes on their hitai-ate. Sound ninja. However, just as soon as I blinked, a certain one of them wasn't there anymore.

Alarms went off in my head and I swerved around just in time to see Dosu, the absent Sound ninja, swing his arm at Kabuto to punch him, but Kabuto avoided the hit. Despite this, Kabuto glasses cracked and he began to heave out whatever he had eaten. I gagged myself and looked away from the sight to avoid losing my own meal.

"Did you see how he did that?" I heard Sho ask me quietly. I looked over and saw that he was intently watching Dosu, who had been joined by his partners, Kin and Zaku.

"I think." I told him from under my hand. I didn't trust myself quite yet. "He wasn't trying to hit Kabuto-san, I'm guessing. Just wanting to get him in range of that thing on his arm. Avoid it entirely, if possible." I finished my analysis with some advice for Sho.

Sho nodded. I took a deep breath and dropped my hand.

Just then the door burst open and our examiners entered the room, led by a tall, hardened man with a black long coat. I already knew his name. Morino Ibiki.

Soon after Morino's entrance, our motley group was separated and the entire room was randomized. My seat was about six rows back from the front, the middle column, on the left hand side. Not a bad spot, if I say so myself, my position must have made it harder for any examiners to see what I was doing.

"You will each start off with ten points." Morino declared once we were settled, "For each question you miss, you lose one point. These Jounin are going to be watching for anyone cheating." This part made me smile. I almost had it memorized. "Each time you are caught, two points will be taken from your total." There was a short pause so we could take this all in before he delivered another kicker. "If anyone in your team loses all their points, everyone in that team fails."

I giggled at the collective gasp, earning a strange look from the teenage boy sitting next to me. I looked back at him and smiled at him. He was from the Hidden Waterfall Village.

My attention whipped back to Morino once he began to speak again. "In the last ten minutes of the exam, I will give the last question. Begin!"

The sound of flipping papers and people picking up pencils filled the air. I joined in, excitement filling my chest as I looked at the questions as I did. Looking at the questions myself, I realized exactly why Naruto would start freaking out any second now. In general, no one with Naruto's level of education could do these questions, bar geniuses or complete bookworms. Sakura's forehead had to symbolized something. My own situation was different. I had my four years of high school and some college work. I was a nineteen-year-old in a thirteen-year-old body. Some of these questions weren't too hard.

It was about twenty minutes until I finished the questions I could. Not counting the last that Ibiki would give in the last few minutes, there were three.

That was when I had an epiphany. With the last question that Ibiki would be giving, why was I bothering with these other questions? Another solid minute passed before I figured out the answer. I was too into this scene not to and I didn't want to seem suspicious. No one else but the instructors knew about the final piece. I felt like proving myself, Higuma and Sho were counting on me to help them out with the gibberish on their papers.

Considering my next move, my eyes roved around the room. Instead of something catching my eye, it caught me by the ear. It was the sound of a bird. I looked at it and found that it was an inconspicuous breed. I decided to try out my brand new jutsu out in a live situation

Putting down my pencil and hiding my hands under the table, I began to perform the necessary hand seals. Rooster, horse, dog, another rooster. I stared at the bird. Under my breath, I muttered, "Warewowasureru no jutsu."

The jutsu took effect immediately and, with only a portion of my will left in my body, my head slumped forward and the stronger portion of my will projected to the bird. It's eyes became my own, taking only a small moment to get used to the enhanced vision.

Taking advantage of the new viewpoint, I scanned the room for an ideal target. There were quite a few juicy ones, so it took a few seconds to settle on one. I read his test quickly to memorize the victim's answers so I could copy them onto my paper.

After I made sure I had his test burned into my brain, I wondered how I was going to get the information to my teammates. Neither of them had a way to cheat off others and, while they were far from stupid, they wouldn't be able to answer these questions.

A memory came to my head. The memory was of a slightly younger me telling Sho and Higuma that we we needed our own Morse code. Then my head filled with memories of me outlining an original code to the boys and Kiyoshi-sensei. If I had been able to, I would've smirked, but I couldn't, so I didn't.

I let out three short chirps to let my companions know that I had the bird. My ploy worked and I saw Sho and Higuma briefly look at me. Higuma from his seat three rows behind me and to the right, and Sho in his seat only a few meters from my window. I took the look as my cue.

My efforts were well-awarded, but not unnoticed. As I was finishing the seventh question, a Jounin either noticed my pattern or got annoyed because he got up to shoo me away. Luckily, I noticed him and was able to withdraw my presence from the bird, effectively setting the bird free. It flew off almost immediately after I withdrew.

Just as I returned to myself, the guy next to me, the one from the Waterfall Village, was called for cheating. This almost made me jump in my seat, but I stayed myself. Taking a moment to breathe, I looked around the room. A lot of people had gotten caught. It kind of psyched me out. I took another breath and consoled myself. I picked up my pencil and finished off my test with my stolen answers. On my last last answer, the last guy at my table was called and my pencil jerked. The table began to feel very lonely.

I had ten minutes left to spare until Ibiki would give the question. In boredom, I turned the page over and started drawing a replica off the bird I used. However, I had only drawn the eye, the top of it's head, and the outline of it's beak before Morino Ibiki called our attention once again.

"Alright!" He barked at us that hadn't been caught. "It's time for the final question, but before I tell you, I must give you a choice. Take the question or leave."

"We've waited so long, why would we leave now?" Someone asked behind me.

Morino smirked at his own private joke. "Because," He said slowly, "if you get this question wrong, you'll remain a genin forever."

* * *

Dun-dun-duun! Okay, some of this I copied because, well, there wasn't any particular need to change the dialogue that was already there. Like Ibiki's instructions. I think I explained in the chapter why Tsubame, even though she already knows the outcome, goes along with the test anyway.

Oh, Japanese help. The technique I invented 'Warewowasureru No Jutsu'. 'Warewowasureru' is an expression that means 'to forget oneself orto lose control of oneself' and since I was having trouble coming up with a suitable name, I thought this expression fit the jutsu well enough.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Answer the Question

"-Get this question wrong and you'll remain a genin forever." That was Ibiki's ultimatum. There had to have been a pure minute of tense silence. Even though I knew the 'question', that was hard to hear, especially since I was there and I had my own team to worry about.

'Please don't let them raise their hand.' I prayed to myself over and over again, hoping that someone would hear.

Before anyone could say anything, the Suna ninja, Kankuro, walked into the room confidently with the 'examiner' leading him on. He had a smirk on his face that, said the back of my mind, looked very good on him.

Morino watched Kankuro with a smirk of his own. "You came just in time. It's a good thing your puppet show didn't go to waste." The look of surprise that Kankuro gave him was priceless, even if was only for a second. He continued walking, giving his sister a minute glance as he passed by her.

The anticipation in the room grew as more and more people raised their hands, taking their team with them.

Finally, able to bear it no longer, Naruto slammed his open hand down on the desk, standing up. All eyes in the room turned to him, watching what he was doing. "Give your question already, old man! I'm going to be the future Hokage!" Naruto announced his dream to everyone. "I can't stop here and I'm not going to!" Saying that, Naruto sat back in his chair, leaving that feeling in the air. His speech gave everyone in the room a new determination. I noticed Hinata staring at the blond ninja with a new blush. Heck, I even had a new smile on my face. Morino too, as he looked around the room until he was satisfied that no one else would throw in the towel.

"Alright," Ibiki finally spoke, "You all pass the first exam."

I could practically hear crickets chirp as the information worked it's way into the mental cogs of every genin in the room. I waited to see who's mind would interpret this the fastest.

"What do you mean we pass?" I looked back to see Temari looking at the Jounin suspiciously. Her arms were folded across her chest and she tilted her head.

After Temari's outburst, Ibiki explained that we had all passed the first exam. He transitioned from this subject by removing his bandanna, revealing multiple scars on his head. Many balked at the sight. Morino began to relay the dangers of information gathering, which was what this portion was about.

This struck a certain chord in me. Information gathering was my specialty. What if I got caught, just like in the example Kiyoshi-sensei gave us? Would I be able to stand the torment any of my captors would use to withdraw the information they wanted? I clutched my chest in my worry.

"What about that bird?" A question by Sasuke startled me out of my thoughts. "It was chirping in some sort of pattern."

Ibiki shrugged. "That was one of your fellow genin taking the test. The Jounin here had nothing to do with it. The genin probably made a special code with their team beforehand and used it to give their teammates the answers to the test." For the briefest moment, I thought his eyes met mine. "It wasn't bad." He admitted.

The hidden compliment made me blush and smile a little. I got a rough compliment! The bad part was that people noticed what the bird was doing. I made myself too obvious.

I looked back at Sasuke to see his reaction to this. His elbows were on the table with his fingers interlaced. The boy's dark eyes stared at the window the bird had been at. His eyes were thoughtful, like he was trying to puzzle out who the bird was. Well, I wasn't going to tell him that it had been my technique. It'll give him something other than his brother to think about.

Just then, someone burst into the room through a window, trailing in a long black sheet. The invader tacked up the sheet with multiple kunai. Then, standing in the sudden attention, the person stood up in front of the sheet she tacked up. The sheet read 'Congratulations for passing the first exam!', and standing there was Mitarashi Anko. Everyone stared at her in surprise and disbelief.

Ibiki poked his head around the sheet and spoke to her. "You really need to learn how to understand the atmosphere." This caused her to turn red and look over at us.

Actually looking at us, Mitarashi Anko realized something. "You must be going soft." She spoke to Ibiki. "There are still twenty-six teams left."

Ibiki smiled. "There are some good ones here."

In response, Anko hummed with a wily smirk. She turned to us Genin. "The next part of the exam will be tomorrow at the Death Forest. Be there."

An hour later, I was walking home by myself. Higuma, Sho, and I had made plans for meeting up with each other the next day. We broke up to call it quits for the rest of the day, though those two would probably end up training themselves. My shoulders slumped as I thought about it. I hoped that my mom wouldn't make me train more. I would have enough physical exertion in the next portion of the examination.

Suddenly I felt another presence behind me. Quickly, I turned to see who it was who had been following me.

"Ah! Kabuto-san! What are you doing over this way?"

"I was just on my way home." The young man explained to me with a pleasant smile. "Tsubame, was it?" I nodded dumbly, not knowing what to say. "Are you excited about the next part of the exam?"

"I guess so. I hope I'm ready for it" I said, loosing up. Different thoughts were racing through my head. Kabuto was actually pretty good-looking, but he was evil too, I think. I also knew that I didn't want him to know what I know... Whatever. "What about you, Kabuto-san?"

"I'm kind of nervous myself actually." Kabuto admitted sheepishly. He laughed and scratched at the back of his head. "What did you do for the test we just took?"

"Well, it was pretty hard, but I was able to work out most of them myself. Though, after a while I did start to cheat." I suddenly noticed that the sun was a lot further down than I thought. "Oh! I need to get home!"

Kabuto looked thoughtful before he spoke again. "It's dangerous for a young girl to walk alone, would you like me to escort you?"

Now it was my turn to be quiet, but then I decided that Kabuto had nothing to gain by doing anything to me, so I decided to accept. "I can defend myself, but I accept your gracious offer." For some reason, I just beamed at him.

On our way to my home, we talked more about the exam. "You answered all those questions yourself?" Kabuto asked.

"No, just most of them. The last couple I decided to just get the answers from someone else so I could tell my teammates at the same time. Remember, come as a team, stay as a team. That was the basic policy."

"How did you get the answers?"

"Sorry, but I'm not telling. I want to have a few secrets. Even if you told me how you did it, you'd still have more secrets than I do." I reasoned. What I didn't say was that I had a clear idea what those secrets were about.

Kabuto just laughed at me. That made me kind of irritated. In my other life, I didn't really like being laughed at like a kid. This laugh sounded a little too close to one of those kinds of laughs. Then again, it sounded kind of nice... But I easily reminded myself that he was evil, or something like that, so I'd keep myself alert.

Looking away from Kabuto, I searched for my house, which was easy enough to spot among the various houses. I looked back at Kabuto to see that he was looking off in some weird direction. "Thanks for escorting me this far, Kabuto-san. But my house is just over that way and I can go that far by myself." I bowed to him, though my brain was screaming at me to find out what he was staring at.

"Oh, it was no problem, Tsubame-chan." He turned and bowed to me. "Good luck to you tomorrow."

"Good luck, Kabuto-san." I called back out of habit and good manners.

Finally we separated ways and I began to analyze Kabuto's recent behavior with me. He mainly asked me questions and, for some reasons, I had no qualms in answering most of them. That was definitely odd since I knew that he was going to betray Konoha. At the very end of our conversation, he stared off like he was looking for something he knew was going to be there. But other than that, there was nothing weird and he did seemed interested in what we talked about.

Before I knew it, I was standing in the doorway of my house. Someone had already tied up Yoshiro for me. He was frantic and started demanding for me to untie him the moment I came to view.

I sauntered up to him, "I don't know, Yashiro-chan." I gave his a Cheshire cat grin. "This is the most peaceful time I've ever had coming home." I paused as if I was thinking heavily. "Fine, but what's the magic word?"

Like a gun, Yashiro began listing off as many words as he could think of that would possibly work.

"It's not the hard, Yashiro-chan." I scolded him. "You're over-thinking it."

"Then what is it, nee-chan?" Yashiro asked with a sulky, dirty look. It was a comical sight.

I sighed and placed a hand on my hip with an exasperated smile. "The magic word is 'please'. Say 'please untie me, Tsubame-sama." I was enjoying torturing the kid. After all the times he ambushed me coming home, it was my turn to dish out some just desserts.

"Please," Yashiro grumbled, glaring at me, "Untie me, Tsubame-sama." He put a huge emphasis on the parts I told him to say."

I whipped out a kunai with an oversized grin. "Of course, Yashiro-chan." I emphasized his name. I cut the knot of the rope. "By the way, who tied you up?"

"Your sensei."

"Why did Kiyoshi-sensei do that?"

Yashiro's cheeks because a pink color before he answered. "When he walked in, I thought he was you and I attacked him. He blocked me and tied me up."

I began to giggle, then my giggles grew into laughter. During my laughter, Yashiro got angry and stormed off. My laughs slowly died down and I wiped a tear from my eye. That felt really good, but then I felt completely wiped out. I left for my own room and crashed on my bed. Who cared if my mom wanted me to train some more. She had me training almost nonstop for a week. I was just tired. I deserved a break by now.

As I started to doze off, I heard talking outside of my door.

"For her to be this tired, she must have been doing a lot. You certainly push your children, Naito-san." It was Kiyoshi-sensei's voice. He sounded amused. So sensei found my exhaustion funny, did he?

"Yes, of course. I want her to be the best. Her brother already has some achievements she has to deal with overcoming, but she really does want to learn. She does quite a bit on her own too." My mom was there too. "How did she do against the sadistic Morino's exam?"

"Good. I was speaking with her partner, Sho, and he told me she answered most of the questions herself. Those weren't genin level questions." Kiyoshi-sensei had a way with words. Or maybe I was starting to get too tired to listen properly. "She got about seven of the answers to he and Higuma before one of the proctors noticed that one of the birds was doing something strange."

"Did you ever find out how she got that code?"

"No." My sensei admitted. "She probably made most of it herself. It seems like her." There was a short silence. "Tsubame would make a decent chuunin. She is about as comfortable in giving orders as taking them. She thinks rather heavily about moral decisions too. A good leader should be able weigh their decisions properly."

"She does have her weaknesses though." My mom cut in on my praise. "Sometimes she thinks too much. What I'm most worried about is her own strength. She's used to working in a group and having her partners step in for the physical strength part."

There was a short silence and my mind slipped off further away from me.

"Well," Kiyoshi-sensei spoke again, barely jolting my thoughts just a tiny bit. "We'll find out just how strong she is individually in the next exam." Any more he might have said was lost to me as I finally fell asleep.

* * *

I'm trying not to think about when was the last time I updated. Sorry about that, to anyone who reads this. I've been getting distracted with life, schoolwork, reading other mangas, working on my original works, and other fanfiction. Lately, Dragonball Z has been the focus of my thoughts lately. It's so addicting. Over Thanksgiving break, my brother let me borrow seasons 1 through 4 of the anime and all I did that weekend was watch it.

One of my recent worries with this story is that Tsubame is turning out to be a Mary-Sue. I don't think she is, but that doesn't mean other people will think the same. She has her strong points, she has her weak points, and she's not too concerned about making eyes at the cute guys.

Isn't her mom rough? Heh, her sensei is giving her praise and her mom is keeping it real. I want you guys to start noticing just how little her memories of the anime is affecting her actions. Sure, she remembers it, but with all the things she has to do and with the fact that she's in the mix, it's harder to keep it in mind. That's why she talks to Kabuto. She knows what he turns out to be, but it was a lot harder to keep it in mind when she was standing next to him.

Anyway, peace out.


End file.
